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What is PrefEdit?

PrefEdit is an application to manage nearly all aspects of the preference system contained in every Mac OS X installation. The program consists of three components which are tightly integrated with each other:

• A browser and editor for the Mac OS X preferences database,
• a browser and editor for Mac OS X property list files (plists),
• a browser for preference manifest files.

The application is directed both to software developers and to end users who like to have full access to each and every aspect of preference settings. It is capable of visualizing the complete search path and priority of user default settings, exactly imitating the view each Mac OS X application has on the preferences database.

PrefEdit was the first preferences editor ever published for Mac OS X. With its long experience and maturity, it has become one of the most advanced preference management applications for Mac OS X available today. In contrast to other applications, PrefEdit can correctly differentiate between the “live“ view on the preferences dataset as it is currently seen by applications, and the persistent representation of settings in preference files.

Features in detail

PrefEdit has the following key features:

• Browse through the complete list of Mac OS X preference domains, differentiating between user-specifc and system-wide preference settings, settings for any computer and computer-specific settings of roaming users in a Mac OS X network, as well as pre-registered and global preferences.
• You can search for any setting in the database, either by value or by internal name of the preference.
• PrefEdit can automatically determine the correct preference domain name for a given application.
• You can change any entry in the preferences database or in a property list file. Property names, entry types and values can be edited freely. Entries can be removed or added. The program handles nested entries of any depth correctly.
• The application has full undo and redo capabilities with an unlimited number of steps. Changes to the live database can be reverted before they have been committed.
• It will be displayed if certain settings are controlled by the client management (MCX) system of Mac OS X which is used via directory services in professional networks.
• PrefEdit automatically detects if metadata for preference settings are available in a preference manifest provided by the application's vendor. In this case, the exact description of the setting, its meaning, and possible value ranges can be displayed.
• Preference domain inspectors allow to view the exact relationship between entries in the live preferences database and their counterparts in the persistent preference files.
• The preference search path used by each compliant Mac OS X application can be visualized, showing the effects of overriding settings and reflecting the view on the settings as each application sees them.
• PrefEdit detects automatically when applications change preference values at the same time the user is editing settings via PrefEdit and warns about the consequences, suggesting different alternatives to resolve the situation.
• Applications can be launched via PrefEdit, so the effects of changing a user default setting can be verified immediately.
• It is possible to search for any entry in a property list file, either by value or property key of the entry.
• PrefEdit can open and write XML-based, as well as binary property list files. Users can freely convert data between the two formats. It is additionally possible to read property list files in OpenStep format, used in Mac OS X's predecessor NeXT OPENSTEP for Mach.
• You can open Mac OS X Preference Manifest Files for Managed Clients and display their decoded contents. Annotated preference settings will be displayed with their complete metadata, like text description, value type, default value, allowed value range, and repetition specification. It is further possible to display Union Policy Manifest Keys (UPKs) in full detail, if provided by the respective vendor. Text descriptions will be automatically displayed in the user's preferred language if the vendor has provided multi-language resources for the preference manifest.

System Requirements

To use PrefEdit version 2, you need an Apple computer which has one of the following operating systems installed:

• Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 or later,
• Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5 or later.